At a private Chinese New Year celebration dinner, Chef Susur Lee surprised the intimate crowd of 30 with a dish not listed on the menu — and a dish some guests said was their favorite of the night.

Unveiling a chicken liver pate with black olive-topped crouton, Lee — who achieved fame after making it to the “Top Chef Masters” finals — told Speakeasy that the richness of the liver, combined with the saltiness of the olive and sweetness of the crouton, made it a “good, warm winter introduction.”

Lee prepared the meal in front of guests in an industrial workspace at The Kitchen NYC last night. The Hong Kong native, who now lives and operates restaurants in Toronto, was invited to fly down and prepare a special meal for notables including Red Farm owner Ed Schoenfeld and Museum of Chinese in America Executive Director Helen Koh.

To ring in the Year of the Black Snake, “a lucky year,” Lee prepared an appetizer of thinly sliced octopus with Szechuan pepper and bean sauce.”I thought, what is the closest thing to a snake? Octopus was something I could explain because obviously we’re not going to have snake or eel – I’m not so crazy about eel,” Lee said.

He also served his signature Chinese New Year Slaw of marinated tuna in a salted apricot dressing, and a snow crab with winter melon soup, both appetizers.

The single dessert mixed Asian and French cuisine — a Chinese sesame ball with passion fruit and chocolate nougats.

Ilya S. Savenok / Getty

Chef Susur Lee preparing his lobster ravioli dish.

Lee paired the dinner with D’Usse cognac cocktails. “The Chinese actually invented drinking spirits with food,” he said, adding that whenever he returns to his native Hong Kong, he sees friends drinking cognac and whiskey with meals. To him, D’Usse is very smooth, and works well with multiple dishes such as in last night’s format. “It helps you digest every time you eat a little, drink a little. It breaks everything down so you can eat more,” he said.

When asked how he celebrates Chinese New Year every year, Lee said one meal he loves to eat on the holiday — but doesn’t have the time to prepare himself — is dried oyster and pork belly braised in moss for a long time.

But the dish may become endangered. “There’s a black moss from the desert and they stopped letting people pick [it] in Beijing,” he said. “Outside Beijing there are sandstorms, and the moss actually protects the sand. But people keep picking them.”